Discoteque Machine

A love-it-or-loathe-it karaoke-style dance competition

According to promo material for this utterly resistible Italian show, ‘You can’t fight the music!’ Oh yes I can. Imagine dance turned into a karaoke-style competition for the public, and led by a handful of fit but faceless men covered head to toe in brightly coloured or crudely characterful body suits. (The most obvious possible influence for their look is the Blue Man Group, once fresh but now gimmicky fixtures of the New York and, indeed, global entertainment industry.) Identified as Morphs, these beings are meant to be figures of mischief who ‘never stop dancing.’ We keep hearing that phrase – and much more, alas – from a revoltingly loud disembodied voice presiding over the game spectators are invited to play.

This is how it works: during five 10-minute rounds about three dozen people – a handful at a time – are permitted onstage for a bogus dance-off set mainly to popular music. It’s the kind of thing that gives audience participation a bad name but was just about what I expected, only worse. On the other hand, those eager to take part seemed to be having a great time being manipulated into making asses of themselves. The guys playing the Morphs are patently capable movers, but who cares? Not me. In a word, dreadful.

Morph/Bags Live
The show where you can’t help getting up and joining in! Six rounds, 35 spectators on stage, 50 remixed tracks and just one rule: Never stop dancing. Get ready to be overwhelmed by the Morphs; with their splendid gags and crazy choreography they will take you on a real journey of ‘initiation". The…